We also offer ‘Accelerate in Business’ courses which cater specifically for graduates and apprentices at the very start of their career.

GENERAL QUESTIONS

What makes Flying Start XP different?

Not only do we teach the core skills of business, we teach it using facilitated learning and experiential methods. Our students learn by doing, getting involved, failing, getting back up again and succeeding. They feel what it’s like to be in the moment. This instils new behaviour so it can easily be recalled and applied back in the workplace. This is where we specialise.

What do we mean by Core skills?

Core skills are the skills that help you get things done in business:- communication, understanding team dynamics, how to run an effective meeting, presenting, negotiation, project management, budgeting, pitching, verbal briefing, building key relationships (colleagues and stakeholders), how to influence and make decisions.

What do we mean by experiential?

Experiential learning gets people out of their seats and doing, out of their comfort zone and learning in a safe environment. When people leave our course, they think they know x amount but 6 months down the line, they realize they have learnt another 50%. The behaviours have been instilled and they’ve recalled them as they come across a similar situation.

Self-awareness is so important, how to address this?

The bedrock of all our courses is becoming self-aware and we do this through psychometric profiling. This profile allows you to know your strengths, value to the team, areas of development and preferred ways of communication. Once you know this information we then apply your natural behaviour across all the skills we teach.

Why 5 days? Can your run shorter courses?

The first 2 days of our 5-day course are really centred around learning about the individual and their role within a team. By day 3, we really do have the students trust, which allows us to really dig deep and give them the confidence to get more stuck in. Our feedback can then be more constructive and people are also more willing to accept this feedback too. A 1-day or half day course doesn’t allow the trust to build so quickly which means it is harder to provide a high-level feedback that the students deserve.

Are the Flying Start XP courses accredited?

Yes, all Employability for Schools and Accelerate Courses are accredited by CPD (Continued Professional Development). For every hour you gain a point. Based on an 8 hour day you will gain 8 points per day. Many companies use CPD points to encourage continued development so adding these to your CV already shows that you’re ahead of the pack

What will I get out of the courses?

Apart from 8 CPD points per day, you will leave the course with the confidence and self-awareness to know how you fit into any organisation or team. You will:

know yourself better and how you work in a team,

Understand how to communicate and present and understand how to adapt depending to whom you are speaking

Learn how to give and receive feedback without insults or grievances

have the ability to run a budget, run a meeting, project manage a basic project and also be happy to go into a negotiation **

Create your first business network

These skills will get you noticed in a business and make you stand out to your manager, giving you more responsibility earlier on in your career. You will also have a sense of the importance of showing humility and authenticity through everything you do. No need to carry an ego around with you.

** only on the 5-day course.

For a school, it’s hard to get 5 days in the curriculum, what are our options?

Working with predominantly year 12 and 13, we have a 3-day schools course running over slightly shorted days than our 5-day course. This allows students, who are not used to full working days, to stay focused and excel in the modules we teach.

What is the different between the 3 and 5-day courses?

The 5-day course includes pitching, decision making, project management and finance with longer time allocated to interviewing and career brainstorming. The 3-day course, if held within curriculum time, includes shorter days.

What industries and careers are they good for?

The great thing about our Flying Start XP courses are that they can enrich any industry. Everyone needs to be able to communicate well, whether it be to a client, a colleague, a customer or a research team. They need to understand the basics of negotiation and budgeting as they are key in all areas of the business and life. We also find that having a mixed background of those people on our course can provide a great environment for innovation and cross-pollination too.

What is your ratio of facilitator to student?

Our courses are based on a ratio of 1 facilitator to 8 students. This allows us to really get to know, understand, feedback and grow every individual on our course. This in-depth learning will lead to such a huge change in behaviour and confidence, it will become the bedrock from where many careers will be grown. Courses can adapt depending on our client brief.

Are the courses residential?

At present, our courses are not residential but it is something that we’re looking in to so if you have the facilities to offer this option then we’d love to hear from you.

Where are your courses held?

We can travel anywhere to run our courses.

Are the courses only for business people?

Any workplace is a business, so if you want to be employed or you want to employ others, learning these key skills and behaviours are essential. They will give you a strong foundation to build a successful career, wherever that may lead.

ACCELERATE IN BUSINESS

How will your course improve my business?

It will reduce retention due to the true development of your early starters. Not only will they return to your business with new confidence and skills, they will further understand themselves, how they behave and how other people behave, including their managers. This allows them to better read a situation and influence in the right way. They will have the skills to get things done with having their hands held, cutting out frustrations for managers and the rest of the team and ensuring any technical training and development is maximized.

As these graduates reach 1st line management, they will have honed their management and leadership skills from the start of their career so can confidently take a step up to manage a team without additional training required immediately.

Can you bespoke the course to our culture?

Yes of course. Culture is really important to us as we know this is often the reason behind a company’s success. Our ideal would be to spend time with the company to ensure the way we deliver our course, matches and builds on the culture and values that you have.

Why is it important to put more time and money into early starters?

We believe that by building a strong foundation in your business, you will reap the benefits as this cohort continues throughout the company. We all know that Millennials want to be developed and given responsibility early. By training them in core skills and behaviours, this will give them the confidence and self-awareness to be of value to their teams from day one. As they prove they are a safe pair of hands, they will also be given more responsibility earlier on in their careers. Retention rates will fall.

Have you worked in our business sector?

We have worked across many business sectors including banking, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, events, technology, military, education to name but a few. Our course is not industry specific as all industries need these skills. Our aim would be to mould the course so that it brings in more scenarios and analogies from your industry to ensure that application of a tool is fully understood.

Why will our grad programme benefit?

By taking the time when graduates join a company to start honing their skills in team dynamics, leadership and project management. When they get to management level, they will be promoted not just because they are good at their job BUT because they also fully understand how to manage people.

How do you cost your courses?

We have a guideline cost for all courses but we prefer to work on an individual basis once we have received a full brief of a companies objectives and requirements.

What happens if I only have 1 day of budget/time to spend on training my graduates?

We can work with you on how to best use this time to really benefit the graduates for the role they have to face tomorrow. One thing we have learnt is that more is not necessarily always best.